I just received an assignment from Dr. Dean to write an inquiry paper on a topic that I wanted to learn more about. So, I wondered—as a teacher, how can I help my students to become life-long writers, not just writers in the classroom? It sounded like an interesting topic, at first. Then, I realized that I had no idea where to go with it, because it all just seems like the idealistic (and slightly naïve) goal of a budding future teacher. How can I actually help kids to not only like writing, but to want to write, especially once they’ve left my English class? I’ll admit, this paper is starting to intrigue me and I think that it is an extremely important concept to understand before I get into the classroom, but I’m not sure I’ve got enough information and thoughts on it to fill the entire ten pages that are required. I’ll keep you updated on my findings, though.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Problems
The more I research this paper, the more I realize the barriers I’ll face as I walk into that classroom. English education has a bad history: faulty research, easy ways out, ineffective teaching, all working against the idealistic pursuit of creating life-long learners.
Fran Claggett, an author, poet, and educator published a book called Teaching Writing: Craft, Art, and Genre. In an interview for her book, she commented, “We need to be vigilant in ways to resist easy answers: scripted lessons, faulty research, test-driven curricula” (2). I’ve really come to learn that the easiest answers don’t accomplish what students need and deserve out of education. Teachers are so focused on appearing to be good teachers that they focus on the simplest answers, like preparing their students for state tests. However, the more I observe and research education, the more I see that redundant, menial, test-focused, not to mention mind-numbing curriculum doesn’t allow for any personal or creative growth and it definitely doesn’t support long term development, even if mandated tests seem to show that they are functioning at an adequate level.
Thankfully, the government and English education programs have recognized the need to do more than just get students through high school by attempting to prepare them for life after they graduate. These attempts are the foundation behind what is now called workplace literacy. This program “refers to the skill set and training necessary for an individual employee to do his or her job… According to the Department of Labor, approximately one in five workers lacks basic literacy skills. The National Association of Manufacturers surveyed its members and found that over half of the companies find their workers have serious shortcomings in basic math, writing and reading comprehension skills” (Hart 2). However, I’ve noticed a lot of mixed feelings regarding workplace literacy. The first problem is the segregation that it implies and enforces. Educator, Jacqueline Darvin said, “I’ve been told numerous times by white, upper-middle-class students that they were cautioned against attending vocational school by their guidance counselors, parents, and teachers. They were told that vocational training ‘wasn’t for them’ and that they were definitely ‘college material’” (35). I think that this thought process is extremely damaging for both sides of the equation. Not only are some students told that they must ignore what they are interested in, because of societal views of success, but it’s only logical that students on the other side, who may have a deep desire to learn academically and develop literacy skills, are being pressured into ignoring academics in favor of “real-life” training.
With this new emergence of workplace literacy, teachers, who remain advocates of supplying students with all of the beautiful literature and writing resources that have remained a staple of English education, are understandably struggling to discover how to incorporate everything into their curriculum. “On one hand, teachers do not wish to do the bidding of business or frame the subject of English so narrowly as only to be doing job training. On the other hand, teachers do not wish to deprive their students of literacy skills that would help them be successful in life, including those useful to finding employment and advancement in their chosen vocations” (Robbins 41). Robbins goes on to argue that by cutting traditional works and expressive and imaginative writing to make place for workplace English, we are trivializing English (41). So, how is it possible to balance preparing students for real-life post high school situations while providing them with the chance to think, explore, and express themselves, skills that are equally vital for life? It seems to me that taking either side to the extreme deprives our students of necessary skills. Should we be spending half of the year teaching the beauty of classic English education and half of the year teaching workplace education? Or is there a way to do both at once?
Once workplace literacy is implemented, another major problem to face is the low quality of assignments being given under the justification that these menial tasks are preparation for real life required skills. Teachers are setting aside wonderful and powerful literary texts and ignoring any kind of interesting or creative writing in favor of educating students on how to fill out forms or write messages. While I can see the good intentions behind doing things like this, I came to love and appreciate English because of the beautiful literature and inspiring compositions. I don’t know of anyone who has a love for and a desire to learn more about memos. Educators who teach these basic skills are not only doing a disservice to these students’ education, they are mocking and demeaning the intellect of their students, as well. Darvin commented, “One needs only to look at one or two ‘workplace writing’ textbooks to see what many school-to-work advocates consider ‘functional literacy’ to be. These textbooks are filled with skill and drill lessons on how to properly fill out job application forms, time sheets, telephone messages, work orders, shipping labels, packing lists, W-4 forms, petty cash vouchers, purchase orders, and the like. In addition, they usually contain units on resume writing, business letters, and personal banking. There are few if any opportunities provided by these books for students to read whole texts or to express their opinions in writing” (36). I think that these problems address one of the most important aspects of teaching: expectations. Students will never succeed if we expect them to fail and if we shut away lessons and paper assignments that are “too smart” for them with the thought that they’ll never need to think creatively or expressively, then they will never think creatively or desire to express themselves. Darvin described a paper that he found while doing an assessment. One high school student wrote this in response to what must have been a tedious and unimaginative assignment.
I could sit here this whole time and write about this useless information which means nothing to me anyway. I could do that, but instead I am going to write to you about why I feel that this test is totally irrelevant. This test is supposed to help me and show me my weak points in communication skills, but it won’t. I am at a great disadvantage in taking this test because I am unable to work to my highest capability. No one ever told me about this test, so I was unable to prepare for it. It asks you to take phone messages from a taped recording and do other menial tasks which have nothing to do with what I hope to do with my life and career. I know that I am not alone in my complaint because other students feel this way too, but they just rushed through the test to get out of here. I’m sorry if this is not the writing exercise that you wanted, but it is the only thing that I feel that I can write. I simply cannot sit here and allow myself to take a ridiculous test that asks me to fill out forms and stuff. I hope you take my letter into consideration and think about coming up with a better test that will really tell you something about a student’s ability to communicate. Thank you (36).
I think that it is amazing that this student was able to create a well written, persuasive, and personal essay under the sparse resources and encouragement he was used to receiving. As he said, most of the students just rushed through the assignment so that they could get the points for it and get out of class. The assignments being given required little individual thought and absolutely no critical thinking. Even in low level classes, the students I’ll face will be young adults, which means that they have developed the capacity to observe how they are being treated and the implications of their treatment. They recognize when we have low expectations and they recognize when the things they are learning are simple, unintelligent, and repetitive. I think that by keeping high expectations and never “dumbing down” assignments, we will do an even better job of preparing our students for other situations and for times when they’ll need to push themselves.
The Goals
One of the first problems I feel that needs to be addressed concerns workplace literacy. We, as teachers, do not have the right to decide what students can or should do with their lives after high school. As soon as we expect certain students to go to academic colleges and others to immediately enter the workforce or go to trade schools, we are limiting their possibilities and their opportunity to choose. As educators, it is our job to teach students of all types, with any future plans. Claggett describes the purpose of her book, Strategic Writing,: “The goal throughout is to give teachers some specific ideas on how to help students become confident and effective writers, no matter what their purposes are or might become as they enter into their separate paths when they leave school” (Claggett 1). She goes on to say, “I have never considered teaching as preparing students for ‘life after school.’ I’d rather think of it as a time for putting down roots for life, life in school is not apart from life, something we do to ‘get ready’ for life” (Claggett 1). If I do my job, I will cover enough of the spectrum while teaching writing so that after they leave my class, students will be able to succeed no matter what is expected of them.
This simply cannot be accomplished by teaching students according to how to pass the state writing tests. Teaching one specific form, style, or genre as the one right way limits students when they face situations where the five paragraph essay, for example, is not an adequate form for their purpose. Claggett concludes, “My experience shows that students who are well prepared to think and write for multiple purposes and in multiple genres do exceptionally well on most mandated tests” (2). If students can be exposed to a variety of forms, styles, and genres when it comes to learning composition, they will be much better prepared to decide for themselves what works best in each situation. One educator suggests that this can be solved by allowing “students to work with a wide range of texts and strategies to address a variety of audiences for different purposes, as well as instruction on language structure and conventions” (Robbins 44). Claggett elaborates, “We need to teach students how to write in various genres, for various purposes and various audiences” (1). Looking back on my high school experience, I feel like most years, we were bombarded with strategies and rules that would allow us to pass the PSSA, Pennsylvania System of School Assessment. I wish that I could say that by my senior year AP composition class, my teacher began to expose us to other forms of writing besides the standard—thesis in the first paragraph stating what you intend to prove and the ways you intend to prove it, followed by paragraphs that expand on the thesis and concluding in a summary/restating of the thesis. I generally enjoyed my teacher that year, but, looking back on it, I realize that she was teaching us to pass the AP test and not much more. As a teacher, I’m slowly coming to realize that it is my responsibility to help students to see that writing is an excellent way to explore your own ideas, understand concepts better, express yourself, and influence others around you. If we stick to standard essay prompts with standard grading and standard expectations, students will never be able to see how influential writing can be outside of the standard classroom setting. Instead, students need to be exposed to a variety of genres, strategies, and audiences.
Another problem I’ve found with workplace literacy and similar teaching strategies is that students are not forced to think critically. Students will rarely remember trivial facts and even specific strategies may be difficult to remember years after they are taught, so the focus needs to be on teaching students to think. Reggie Routman, author of “Conversations—Strategies for Teaching, Learning, and Evaluating, affirmed that our goal needs to be to get students to “focused on their own thinking” (136). Claggett agrees: “School is not the place to determine the specific writing needs for the jobs that exist now, much less those we don’t even know about because they are changing as we write. What school is the place for is creating an environment in which high-level thinking meshes with high-level reading and writing” (Claggett 1). Asking literary questions allows students to expand their minds and get used to thinking about what they read, which leads them to ask good questions and develop good thinking skills, which ends in thoughtful writing. Of the three types of literary questions, those related to the text, those related to other texts, and those connected to life, teachers tend to focus on the first. In order to create life-long writers, students should be encouraged to explore what they are thinking, what they notice, what questions they think of, and what insights they gain (Routman 184). Thinking critically is not a strategy that students will be quick to forget. It may be a more difficult mission to accept, but the positive repercussions will be to create life-long critical thinkers and writers.
If our common goal is to create a desire in our students to utilize the writing process, it seems natural that we need to relate writing to the individual interests of our students. However, too many teachers continuously assign the tradition prompts for every assignment instead of allowing for variety and choice. Allowing students to explore their own thoughts and interests through writing will hopefully open their eyes to the benefits of personal writing. Claggett encouraged, “Students need to understand how important it is to know that they can write whatever kind of writing they need or want to do in their lives, from personal to professional” (Claggett 2). If students are never given the opportunity to write whatever kind of writing they need or want to in their lives then they will never learn to use it once they leave the classroom setting. Darvin had a great suggestion to ensure that we are able to reach all kinds of students. “English teachers who work with vocational students can also gain admittance into these literacy clubs; by welcoming these special-interest texts into their classrooms and providing students with opportunities to display their vocational knowledge and their feelings about related issues through writing” (Darvin 38). This strategy can be applied whether you have vocational students or not. Variety and choice will allow students from all backgrounds and with all interests to personally connect to writing. Just because I like to read good literature and write about it definitely does not mean that my students will feel the same way. And I definitely didn’t learn to love writing by writing about literature. I developed my love and need for writing when I began keeping a personal journal. Journal keeping began as a requirement in elementary school and has continued throughout my life and I still use journal writing and undelivered letters to sort through my own feelings. I have always loved writing in my journal, because it is something that was and is of importance to me. Writing had to be something personal to me before I could appreciate it I want to keep that in mind when I’m teaching writing to my students.
The Strategies
A lot has been said concerning strategies involving workplace literacy. There are a lot of ideas going around and a lot of un-finalized research, but from what I have researched and observed, there are a few key points to remember when incorporating workplace literacy into the classroom. A lot of students, vocational students in particular are most drawn to informational texts. So, while literary texts are of great importance in the English classroom, critical reading and writing is an asset no matter what kind of reading and writing is being conducted. Darvin said, “I’ve also found that my students write highly articulate journal entries and essays in response to nonfiction, informational texts. They connect with these texts in ways that are creative and emotionally-charged, rather than simply using them as transmitters of factual information” (Darvin 37). In response to the struggle of what workplace knowledge should be in the curriculum and what must be left out, Robbins proposed, “I suggest that rather than replace valuable content and learning experiences already in the curriculum with workplace training, we can instead draw on the functions of workplace documents to support the work we routinely do in the classroom and the school. Students will become acquainted with workplace writing simply by doing it” (Robbins 41). Instead of teaching mundane tasks like filling out forms, memos, reports, or proposals, teachers can simply use these tasks in their curriculum. By doing that, students can practice skills that may be necessary for post high school lives, without missing out on valuable English education and without feeling like their curriculum has been “dumbed down.”
One of the most important things that I’ve learned about creating life-long writers involves getting students to relate personally to their writing. This can be done by encouraging authentic writing and real world audiences. This strategy was initiated into a small town
Making writing personal and allowing for different audiences doesn’t have be to as extravagant as Rossbach’s classroom. One thing to recognize and utilize in the classroom is the importance and value of the various forms of communication that students are already using. Middle school and high school students blog, chat, and email a great deal more than they talk face to face and definitely more than they compose compositions. Instead of discouraging these behaviors, we can utilize them. “We live in the middle of an amazing revolution of publishing and creation. As the Internet continues to grow and develop, more power to create and publish is in the hands of everyone who wants it” (Hunt 105). Teachers, too often stuck in the traditional mindset, consider the new advances in technology to be a distraction to them and their students and some even find the new publishing medium provided by the internet to be dangerous and unnerving. However, it’s finally time to accept that “Students are immersed in this participatory culture. They write and read at MySpace, Bebo, and Xanga. They draft and share poetry at VampireFreaks.com; they share photos and text messages via their computers and telephones. They watch, create, and share funny, and sometimes scary, stuff at YouTube or Google Video” (Hunt 105). Claggett has advocated that “Ideally, writing assessments allow for students to write for various purposes and for specific audiences” (Claggett 2). Personally, as a teenager, I thought much more carefully and critically about writing that I knew would be shared with my peers than I did for writing that will only be seen by my teacher and I think that I still do that today. Journal writing is a strategy that has always been used in English classrooms, but using blogs is a fun and interesting way to bring journal writing into this technological age. Journals of any form allow students to explore and express themselves in ways that they may not attempt without some persuasion. Assigning students to write at least once a week in a blog that will be viewed by me, their classmates, and any peers that they would like to share it with is a much more intriguing take on the old classic journal. In addition, every article I’ve read that has talked about teaching students to be life-long writers has emphasized the importance of allowing students to write to a variety of authentic audiences, audiences besides just the teacher where they feel that their writing has more impact than just on a grade. Bud Hunt finalizes the benefits of the use of the web in the classroom perfectly: “How much more authentic can you get than the entire world? (Hunt 106).
The Conclusion
I’ve learned so much from the research that I’ve found on creating life-long writers and I’ve explored a lot of my own beliefs and desires for teaching that I didn’t even know I had. I realize that so many problems begin with teachers with low expectations taking the easy way out. Our goals need to be high, much higher than having students pass on standardized test. There are so many fun strategies out there that may take a little more creativity, but produce much better results. I’m amazed with how much I was able to write and I even had a good time researching and investigating the topic. It’s interesting how much information can be expressed through a blog. All I was trying to do was keep a journal of interesting things that I’ve found or thoughts I’ve had and I managed to write an entire paper! Maybe I should keep this in mind when I’m teaching…
Works Cited
Claggett, Fran. “Teaching Writing as ‘Putting Down Roots for Life.” The Council Chronical Nov. 2005.
Darvin, Jacqueline. “Beyond Filling Out Forms: A More Powerful Version of Workplace Literacy.” English Journal November 2001.
Hart, Matt. “Guide to Workplace Literacy.” Literacy Volunteers of the New
Hunt, Bud. “New Voices.”English Journal—High school edition Sep. 2007. Vol. 97, Iss. 1. pg. 105-109.
Robbins, Bruce. “Weaving Workplace Writing into the English Classroom.” English Journal Nov. 2001.
Rossbach, Lucille Zenker. “Documenting History Enhances Literacy and Preserves Community.” English Journal, July 2004. Vol 93, No. 6. pg. 41-46.
Routman, Regie. “Conversations.” Heinemann: